She wrote: “We had good times with him. When I needed anything he would always try his best to be there for me and my brother.

“My dad was a lovely, caring man but he had a cruel life.

“I always wanted him to stay with me when he was leaving to go back up to Dublin but he never could.

“I love my father and was looking for him all the time I didn’t see him. I’d wonder why I couldn’t find him.

“The last time I saw him was around two years ago and he didn’t look too well but he seemed to be hanging in there.

“My dad is at peace now and I feel more relieved that he is now in a better place where he is warm, not hungry and not being looked down on.

“RIP to my angel daddy, he will never be forgotten by me and that’s a promise. I love you daddy.”

Yesterday the grief-stricken family travelled to the capital to visit the spot where Jonathan’s body was discovered on Monday.

Candles and messages outside the doorway where Jonathan Corrie was found dead on Molesworth Street in Dublin (Image: Collins)

Looking at the flowers and messages that had been placed at the scene, Catherine thanked all those who had left messages for him.

She said: “We will always remember him, he gave me two beautiful children. Thank you to everyone out there, he will be missed.

“Hopefully something will be done to help more people out there who are homeless and have addictions and not to be pushed aside.”

Sophie Pigot, 25, was walking to work shortly before 8am on Monday when she saw the homeless man sprawled out across steps on Molesworth Street.

Mr Corrie, who was filmed for RTE documentary High Hopes Choir which is to be aired tonight, had a chronic heroin addiction and gardai discovered a syringe near his remains.

Jonathan Corrie taken from the High Hopes Documentary due to be aired on RTE One

Jonathan was born in Dublin but adopted as a baby by a family from Co Kilkenny.

He left home as a young teenager and spent most of his life living rough.

As the Irish Mirror revealed yesterday, he was interviewed in 2011 by college students and told them: “I’ve been homeless since I was 13-and-a-half. I’m 40 now.

“I lived in a squat for one-and-a-half years and I’ve been in the hostel for one-and-a-half years.”

And in an interview with Dublin City FM two months ago, he said: “I think everyone should have a chance, every single person on their own should have a chance.

“It has become a way, a way of life. To get a job you need a base and you need a good three square meals a day as well, to be honest, and you need some good sleep – and you won’t get it on the street.”